Rose
NME | Strange German bloke's moody, enveloping second LP
In the first three minutes, a lovelorn Hecker bemoans how he’s spent seven days without a glance from Kate Moss. But if the former busker has something of the stalker about him, he’s not one of those men who have bad fringes and still live with their mum.
"Rose", Hecker's second LP, is as beautiful and barbed as the flower itself and proves that sinister can also be suave and beautiful.
While his sexless Germanic vocals threaten to get smothered in drippy melancholy, he’s wise enough to ease off with the string quartets as things progress, transmuting his snail pace into the kind of pin-drop quiet electro Fischerspooner would make after a pint of heroin. Lovely.
8/10
Jockey Slut | Lest We Forget
We cast our minds back, oohh, months to one that gets better with every play:
In the scramble to acclaim Berlin as the new epicentre of cool (slight return) due to its close links with Germany's electronic body music explosion, one artist has been criminally overlooked. Sometime model Maximilian Hecker might not possess DJ Hell's zeitgeist chic or Tiefschwarz's unwavering house wiggle but in truth he’s beyond that: he’s hip in a manner only the likes of Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett could countenance.
"Rose", his second album, following 2001's "Infinite Love Songs", is a fantastic and beguiling blend of fragile, romantic torch songs and brings the traditional singer/songwriter kicking and screaming into the 21st century, utilising as it does snatches of glitchy electronica alongside more familiar troubadour techniques. That he’s named a track after Kate Moss because the string section reminded him of her hair can only enhance his irrepressible and emotive old school cool. One for the gentlemen amongst you.
Uncut | German romanticism reborn on former busker's second album
Given the romantic movement began in Germany, it’s odd that the country is today known for electronic experimentalism rather than emotional warmth. Maximilian Hecker's name may not belong in the same breath as Beethoven or Goethe. But he seeks to readjust the balance with his second album of frail, elegiac hymns of unrequited love. That the opening track is called 'Kate Moss' is unpromising. Yet even that turns out to be another exquisite paean to heartbreak. Not as dark or deep as Ed Harcourt. But fans of 'From Every Sphere' should definitely give Max a listen.
Time Out London
Berlin singer-songwriter Maximilian Hecker's follow-up to his brittle 2001 debut, "Infinite Love Songs", is a darker and much sadder, yet equally as intimate affair. His emotionally weary Neill-Tennant-marries-Thom-Yorke voice brings to life the sharp pangs of fated love while naked, melancholy chords erupt into swathes of looped pianos, flourishes of subtle electronica and – unexpectedly – drum'n'bass, that achingly portray its intense, almost claustrophobic yearnings. It seems to Hecker, love is fragile, beautiful and shortlived. Just like that titular rose.
Careless Talk Costs Lives
A rose is not all it seems. You need to beware of thorns. There are good reasons not to like Maximilian Hecker. He once covered Oasis songs on the street corners of Berlin, but this is no longer significant. Things have moved on.
"Rose" is a heart-crusher of an album, drenched with Massive Attack-like somnolence, like Sigur Rôs clashing with The Beatles or Nick Drake's ghost humming along to Radiohead. This shizoid notebook of songs is demonstrative and totally miserable. Indecisive, but in a good way. Best of all, these songs sulk self-indulgently. An unequivocal "fuck you".
Maximilian Hecker once did a version of A-ha's "Take on me". Everyone joined in, but only he could hit the really high notes.